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(NEW YORK) — Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced on Monday that he will actively stay in the New York City mayoral race, but that he will accept a pledge to abide by the results of a proposed September poll, where he and other candidates would drop out if they aren’t leading.

“The fight to save our city isn’t over… The general election is in November, and I am in it to win it,” Cuomo said in a video posted on X on Monday, where he acknowledged his primary loss and apologized to his supporters.

“As my grandfather used to say, when you get knocked down, learn the lesson and pick yourself back up and get in the game, and that is what I’m going to do,” Cuomo said.

Cuomo criticized his opponent and presumptive Democratic nominee for mayor Zohran Mamdani as offering “slick slogans, but no real solutions.”

“Every day, I’m going to be hitting the streets meeting you where you are,” Cuomo said, “to hear the good and the bad. Problems and solutions. Because for the next few months, it’s my responsibility to earn your vote.”

In a separate email to supporters, Cuomo wrote, “I also believe that all of us who love New York City must be united in running the strongest possible candidate against Zohran Mamdani in the November general election for mayor. … That is why I have accepted the proposal put forth by former Governor David Paterson and candidate Jim Walden that, in mid-September, we will determine which candidate is strongest against Mamdani and all other candidates will stand down, rather than act as spoilers and guarantee Mamdani’s election.”

Cuomo conceded in the Democratic mayoral primary to Mamdani, a progressive who netted 56% of the primary vote after ranked-choice tabulation, but still will be on the ballot on an independent ballot line.

The former governor and other candidates have been facing calls from opponents of Mamdani to step aside from the race to try to coalesce support for one non-Mamdani candidate.

Independent candidate Jim Walden suggested earlier this month that an independent poll should be run close to the election, and the candidates that lose in the poll would endorse whoever won and stop campaigning. Cuomo’s campaign had previously said it was reviewing the proposal.

NewsNation was the first to report about Cuomo’s decision, before he officially made the announcement on Monday.

Walden told ABC News on Monday, before Cuomo’s announcement, that he is heartened that Cuomo is set to take up his proposal and he hopes Adams and Sliwa also take it on. He affirmed that he himself would drop out of the race if he was behind in the poll, and said he believes Cuomo and Adams will sign on because “no one” would want to be the one who lets Mamdani win.

However, incumbent Mayor Eric Adams – running as an independent – and Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa, are continuing to dig in.

“Andrew Cuomo lost the Democratic primary by double digits and is now doing the same thing he did to respected leaders like Charlie King, Governor David Paterson, and Carl McCall, Assembly Keith Wright – FORCE A BLACK ELECTED OUT OF OFFICE,” Adams said in a statement over the weekend.

On Monday, asked about the poll proposal at an unrelated event, Adams was defiant.

“[Cuomo is] He’s saying that [we should] utilize polling to determine who should run against the Democratic primary winner. Remember, polls showed him up 40 points… He lost by 13 points,” he said. “So if we’re going to use these methods of making this determination that they have already proven inaccurate, why are we going to put the risk of New Yorkers by someone who has not kept his word? As he has a consistent record of not keeping his word, why are we going to trust him now?”

Curtis Sliwa told ABC News in an interview on Monday before Cuomo’s announcement that he won’t back down from the race. He also criticized the poll gambit.

“I don’t want [Cuomo] to leave. I want the voters to make the decision. I’m not afraid of people. I think people will make a decision… They’re welcome to drop out. I’m in until November, but if the three independents — Cuomo, Adams, Walden — want to play musical chair on the Titanic and choose one independent’s line. That’s their choice. But the people have a right to vote for the candidate of their choice,” Sliwa said.

A spokesperson for Mamdani’s campaign, meanwhile, positioned the presumptive Democratic nominee as above the fray, in a statement before Cuomo’s announcement.

“While Andrew Cuomo and Eric Adams are tripping over themselves to cut backroom deals with billionaires and Republicans, Zohran Mamdani is focused on making this city more affordable for New Yorkers. That’s the choice this November,” the spokesperson wrote in a statement to ABC News New York station WABC.

Mamdani responded to Cuomo’s Monday video on X with a fundraising link for his own campaign.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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(CLACKAMAS COUNTY, Ore.) — An avid mountain biker has been reported missing in Oregon after not returning from a planned biking trip near Mount Hood on Friday, according to the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office.

Ralph Sawyer, 52, was reported missing on Friday at approximately 10:30 p.m. after he had left home that morning for a mountain biking trip and had not returned home at the expected time of 8:30 p.m., officials said in a statement on Sunday.

“A search and rescue mission was immediately launched to locate him,” the sheriff’s office said.

Sawyer, who has a “long history of mountain biking in the area and is familiar with the terrain,” has not been locate, with officials entering their third day of search efforts on Monday, the sheriff’s office said.

Officials were able to locate Sawyer’s vehicle, a blue Kia Soul, at 12:15 a.m. on Saturday. His cellphone was also found inside the vehicle, officials said.

Officials said the search for Sawyer has been centered along East Still Creed Road to Veda Lake and Kinzel Lake, along with the United States Forest Service roads around Trillium Lake, which is about 40 miles southeast of Portland.

On Saturday, nearly 40 people were involved in the search for Sawyer, while around 70 were mobilized on Sunday, officials said.

ATVs, canine units and drones have also been utilized in the search efforts, officials said.

Sawyer, who is described as 6 feet, 1 inch tall with brown hair, was last seen wearing an orange bike helmet, blue shirt and black bike shorts, officials said.

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(FALL RIVER, Mass.) — Nine people have been killed and dozens are hurt after a five-alarm fire tore through an assisted-living facility in Fall River, Massachusetts, officials said.

Firefighters, police and other responders descended on the scene of the Sunday night fire at the Gabriel House assisted-living facility, where they found multiple people “hanging out of the windows, screaming and begging to be rescued,” Fall River Fire Chief Jeffrey Bacon said.

Smoke was all over the building, Bacon said.

“This was not a situation where teams arrived and people were able to get out easily — all of these people needed assistance,” Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey said. “Many were in wheelchairs, many were immobile, many had oxygen tanks.”

About 12 “non-ambulatory residents were physically carried out by our officers,” according to Fall River police.

Thirty people, including five firefighters, were taken to local hospitals, Bacon said.

One person is in critical condition, Bacon said. The five firefighters have already been released, officials said.

The building — which was home to about 70 people — is now clear, officials said.

It’s not clear if the sprinklers went off, officials said.

“My heart goes out to those who are waking up to the most horrific news imaginable about their loved ones this morning,” Healey said in a statement on Monday.

Later at a news conference, the governor expressed her gratitude for the first responders’ quick actions.

“Were it not for that, we would’ve seen an even far — an unimaginable loss of life here, given the vulnerability of this population,” she said.

The cause of the fire is under investigation. One official briefed on the probe told ABC News that, as a preliminary matter, the fire does not appear to have been set intentionally. More likely, the source said, it appears to have been caused by some sort of electrical or mechanical problem.

Fall River, near the Massachusetts-Rhode Island border, is about 50 miles south of Boston.

The building was built in 1964 and underwent an exterior remodeling in 2000, according to tax assessment records. It was listed on the assessment form used by the city as having an “average-good” physical condition as of this February, the records said.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

ABC News’ Jared Kofsky, Matt Foster and Jessica Gorman contributed to this report.

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NORTH RIM, Ariz. — The Grand Canyon Lodge was one of dozens of structures destroyed in a fast-moving wildfire in Arizona over the weekend, the National Park Service (NPS) confirmed.

The lodge, which sits on the North Rim of Grand Canyon National Park, first opened in 1937 and is listed as a National Historic Landmark. It is the only in-park lodging option in that region of the park.

The fire, dubbed by officials as the Dragon Bravo Fire, had scorched over 5,000 acres as of Sunday morning and is being fueled by extreme summer heat, low humidity and strong winds.

A second fire, the White Sage Fire, is also threatening the Grand Canyon’s North Rim, according to NPS.

The lodge is one of approximately 50 to 80 structures that have been lost, including the National Park Service’s administrative building and visitor facilities.

NPS officials said aerial bucket drops were conducted to slow fire movement near the lodge; however, a chlorine gas leak at the nearby water treatment facility prompted the evacuation of firefighting personnel from critical zones.

Chlorine gas can quickly settle into lower elevations such as the inner canyon, posing a health risk, officials added.

No deaths or injuries have been reported in the fire, and all staff and residents were successfully evacuated before the fire’s escalation, NPS officials said.

The North Rim will remain closed to all visitor access for the remainder of the 2025 season, according to NPS.

Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs released a statement on Sunday, saying she’s “incredibly saddened by the destruction of the historic Grand Canyon Lodge.”

“As someone who was born and raised in Arizona, I know what the Grand Canyon National Park means to so many people, not just in Arizona, but all over the world, and how devastating it is to see this damage done to one of Arizona’s most cherished landmarks,” Hobbs said.

Hobbs also called for “scrutiny” into the federal government’s emergency response to the wildfire. “They must first take aggressive action to end the wildfire and prevent further damage,” Hobbs said.

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BUTLER, Pa. — Senate Homeland Security And Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Rand Paul released a final report Sunday on the committee’s findings from its investigation into the assassination attempt by Thomas Crooks targeting then-candidate Donald Trump, marking one year since the events in Butler, Pennsylvania.

The report has few new details and is largely a rehashing of information that was already known about the shooting. It largely mirrors a preliminary report on the investigation put forward by then-committee Chairman Gary Peters in September 2024.

The report outlines what Paul calls “stunning failures by the United States Secret Service that allowed then-former President Donald J. Trump to be shot on July 13, 2024.”

“The truth is, President Trump, and the nation, was fortunate. The once-again President survived despite being shot in the head. Since that day, there has been another attempt on his life and further threats to do him harm, including most recently a renewed threat from Iran. This report reveals a disturbing pattern of communication failures and negligence that culminated in a preventable tragedy. What happened was inexcusable and the consequences imposed for the failures so far do not reflect the severity of the situation,” Paul’s report says.

Secret Service Director Sean Curran said in a statement Sunday that his agency “will continue to work cooperatively with the committee as we move forward in our mission.”

“Following the events of July 13, the Secret Service took a serious look at our operations and implemented substantive reforms to address the failures that occurred that day,” Curran said. “The Secret Service appreciates the continued support of President Trump, Congress, and our federal and local partners who have been instrumental in providing crucial resources needed to support the agency’s efforts.”

The report stems from the committee’s bipartisan investigation launched shortly after the attack on July 13, 2024. It is based on 75,000 pages of document produced to the committee, according to the report.

The report’s findings highlight many that have already been reported about the attempted shooting of Trump, including what it describes as “unacceptable failures” in planning and execution of the Butler rally.

In particular, it highlights, as previously reported, communication failures that led to vulnerabilities on the day. It focuses on a previously reported breakdown of communications between local law enforcement and the USSS.

The report notes instances leading up to the Butler rally in which the Secret Service headquarters denied or left unfulfilled requests for additional resources to support Trump during the campaign. They highlight an instance in which a request for countersnipers at a rally in South Carolina went unfulfilled, though there were countersnipers at the Butler rally.

It also highlights that lack of countersnipers at Trump’s July 9, 2024, rally in Doral even after a briefing the day before from the USSS Protective Intelligence Division led to the July 9 determination by USSS that counter snipers should be present at all of Trump’s outdoor rallies due to intelligence reflecting increased risks at outdoor events.

The report also highlights other instances of other resources, such as Counter Assault Teams and drones, being denied for various Trump events in 2024.

The report argues there has been “insufficient accountability” for USSS officials involved in the incident. Paul, according to the report, subpoenaed USSS for records related to the “disciplinary actions” taken against personnel involved in planning the Butler rally earlier this month. The produced documents revealed that six individuals have faced disciplinary action, and the report argues that the penalties received were “too weak to match the severity of the failures”.

Paul also says that Kimberley Cheatle, the former USSS director, made false statements when testifying before Congress following the attack. Cheatle told the committee that there were “no requests that were denied” for the Butler rally, but the committee found evidence of “at least two instances of assets being denied by the USSS headquarters” related to the Butler rally. The report asserts that former Acting Director Ronald Rowe’s testimony was also “misleading.”

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LEXINGTON, Ky. — Two women were shot and killed at a Kentucky church by a suspect who fled there after allegedly shooting a state trooper elsewhere, according to officials.

A suspect allegedly shot a Kentucky State Police trooper near the Blue Grass Airport in Lexington, KY, and then fled to a church, where the suspect shot four people before police shot and killed the suspect, officials said at a Lexington Police Department press conference late Sunday afternoon.

Two of the churchgoers, both women, were killed, officials said. The other two victims, both male, were taken to the hospital for treatment. One of them is in critical condition while the other is stable, according to officials.

“Something like this has a huge impact on our community,” Lexington Police Chief Lawrence Weathers said during the press conference.

The incident occurred at approximately 11:36 a.m. on Sunday when a suspect “shot a trooper and then fled the scene,” Kentucky State Police said in a statement.

The suspect shot the trooper on Terminal Drive, adjacent to the Blue Grass Airport, then fled to the Richmond Road Baptist church, according to the Lexington Police Department.

The gunman was able to escape by carjacking a vehicle, police said during the press conference.

Officers were able to track the suspect’s vehicle, leading them to the church, where the suspect shot four individuals. The two women — a 72-year-old and a 32-year-old — were pronounced dead at the scene, and the two men were transported to the hospital.

The trooper wounded in the shooting is also receiving medical attention, according to the agencies, with the Lexington Police Department statement saying that the trooper “is in stable condition.”

The suspect was shot by responding law enforcement and was pronounced dead at the scene, officials said. The identity of the shooter will be provided once the suspect’s family has been notified, police said.

Officials said they believe that the suspect had a connection to individuals at the church. The motive behind the shooting remains unclear.

A official briefed on the investigation told ABC News that the suspect had a history of mental health, drug and anger issues. He had had a domestic situation with an ex-girlfriend who then filed protection orders against him, the official said.

Coroner Gary Ginn said the majority of the people at the church were related biologically or “have been friends for many years.”

“It’s a tight-knit group of people,” Ginn said during the press conference.

Lexington police said in an earlier statement that officers had “temporarily closed some roads nearby” the incident and that authorities will “remain in the area until the investigation is complete.”

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said in a statement that he is “heartbroken” regarding the news of the two deaths.

“Violence like this has no place in our commonwealth or country. Kentucky, let’s stand strong together and support our Lexington neighbors during this difficult time,” Beshear said in a post shared on X.
Police said they will provide more information on the incident “as it becomes available.”
 

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(NEW CASTLE, DE) — First responders recovered the body of a driver Saturday after their truck cab plunged off the Delaware Memorial Bridge a day earlier.

The Delaware River Port Authority crews began searching the river after the truck cab crossed three lanes of traffic, went onto the concrete pad near the Delaware anchorage and crashed through a concrete wall around 3:40 a.m. Friday.

On Saturday morning, crews found the unidentified driver inside the cab which was recovered.

The cab was brought the surface with the assistance of a crane and barge from the active construction site of the Bridge Ship Collision Protection project, DRPA said in a statement.

The driver’s body was removed using a Hurst tool, the agency said.

The cause of the crash is still under investigation. No other vehicles were involved.

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(Texas) — The last time Matthew Hammond saw his 17-year-old daughter Malaya Grace Hammond, she was singing.

Minutes earlier, Malaya was in the car with her parents, her brother, her sister and her sister’s friend driving to her beloved camp in Missouri where she was so excited to be a counselor, Hammond told ABC News.

When they came upon a bridge in Burnet County that should be over the dry Cow Creek, they instead found the bridge flooded with fast-moving water.

“I tried to stop, but I couldn’t,” he said, overcome with emotion, recalling how their minivan went off the bridge and started taking on water.

Hammond said he shouted at everyone to roll down their windows.

“If we didn’t get ’em down, we’d be done,” he said.

Hammond got his window down and he and his wife escaped through the front of the car. Malaya had the harder task of getting the minivan’s back door open as the water quickly rose, her father said.

“Miraculously, she got it open in time,” he said, and Malaya helped her siblings and the friend escape, sending them all into the rushing waters.

Hammond, an experienced river rafter, called it “the craziest river I’ve ever been in.”

He saw Malaya — a lifeguard and a certified swim instructor — ahead of him in the water.

“She knew to turn on her back,” he said, and she was singing “Rise and Shine Give God the Glory” — a song she planned to teach her campers.

She had the “presence of mind” “to keep herself calm,” he said, crying.

“That was the last I saw her,” he said.

The family searched for Malaya through the weekend. Her remains were recovered on Monday, her father said.

Hammond stressed his immense gratitude for the “extraordinary” first responders who came to help look for his daughter, especially local fire chief Michael Phillips, who responded to their emergency call and later went missing in the floods. He has not been found.

“He sacrificed himself for my family,” Hammond said, crying. “I want to go grieve with his family. … I will do whatever I can for his family.”

As for his own heartbreak, Hammond said through tears, “It’s a form of grief I’ve never known.”

“I’ve lost people close to me, but this is unlike anything I’ve ever experienced,” he said. “If you told me I was gonna be burying my daughter before I left this planet — no, not Malaya Grace.”

His “luminous” Malaya was a talented singer and artist who painted incredible watercolors at 3 years old, he said.

She worked as a barista at her local coffee shop and was known as the peacemaker among her peers.

She always had a “sense of tranquility and peace,” her dad said.

“Her middle name was Grace for a reason — she was grace personified,” he said.

“Just being with her, it just made everything better,” he said. “In a world that’s so out of control … she was the counterbalance to that. She took her sweet, sweet time, and we love that about her. It made us slow down. And I really miss that.”

Last weekend’s catastrophic flooding has claimed the lives of at least 121 people in Texas. Another 166 people are missing.

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(PHILADELPHIA, Pa. ) — Pennsylvania is experiencing “intermittent” statewide 911 outages, officials confirmed on Friday.

The Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency confirmed on social media there are “some outages” and they are working to resolve the issue and restore service.

“Please only call 911 for true emergencies. Do not call just to check whether it is working,” the agency said.

The Philadelphia Police Department said the outage is “intermittent” and that “some calls are still successfully going through.”

The outage may impact that the ability of some residents to reach emergency services through the traditional 911 system, police said.

If residents are unable to reach 911, police urge residents to call their local Philadelphia Police District directly.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

 

 

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(NEW YORK) — Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s legal team asked a judge at a hearing Friday to order that he not be removed from the United States without at least 72 hours notice should he be released on bond from detention in Tennessee.

On Day 3 of a hearing in Maryland on the government’s plans for the longtime Maryland resident this week, U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis repeatedly blasted the government for what she said was an insufficient effort to address what exactly will be done to ensure due process for Abrego Garcia if he’s taken into ICE custody following his release.

“We’re asking for 72 hours, 72 hours notice, so that my client can have an opportunity to run to whatever is the appropriate court at that moment to get relief before he’s shipped off to an as-yet-unidentified country and he’s potentially subject to torture or persecution in violation of a court order. That’s all we’re asking,” Abrego Garcia’s attorney told the judge.

The judge did not rule from the bench but said she would do so soon.

Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran native, was deported in March to El Salvador’s CECOT mega-prison — despite a 2019 court order barring his deportation to that country due to fear of persecution — after the Trump administration claimed he was a member of the criminal gang MS-13, which he denies.

He was brought back to the U.S. last month to face charges in Tennessee of allegedly transporting undocumented migrants within the U.S. while he was living in Maryland. He has pleaded not guilty.

Government attorneys have said that, should Abrego Garcia be released on bond, he could be deported again, but Abrego Garcia’s legal team has argued he should be transferred from Tennessee to Maryland to await trial.

Judge Xinis, however, acknowledged the government’s position that there’s no ICE detention facility in Maryland.

The judge also said that restoring the status quo would mean returning Abrego Garcia to Maryland as that’s where “he was arrested in Baltimore without any proof” — but the government argued that his removal process started in Texas when he was taken into ICE custody.

“We may have a disagreement on what the status quo is, Your Honor … with respect, we disagree, but obviously your opinion matters more,” the DOJ attorney said.

Xinis said she doesn’t necessarily think sending Abrego Garcia back to his family in Maryland is the “proper full relief,” but added, “I do know there’s a real question in my mind: Does he get the process to start over through Immigration in Maryland?”

The judge also slammed the lack of detailed answers provided by ICE official Thomas Giles during his testimony Thursday, when he was asked to explain the government’s plans for Abrego Garcia’s deportation.

“The reality is, this has been a process. From Day 1, you have taken the presumption of regularity and you have destroyed it, in my view, because I can’t presume anything to be regular in this highly irregular case,” the judge said at the start of Friday’s hearing when a DOJ attorney wasn’t able to produce Abrego Garcia’s detainer document that she had asked for on Thursday.

The government subsequently produced the document later in the hearing.

Declaring that Giles’ testimony “insults my intelligence,” Judge Xinis said that getting specific information is critical due to the extraordinary situation in which the government has already wrongfully deported Abrego Garcia once.

“So this — we’re not operating on a clean slate at all,” she said. “It seems like this would be the case where you’d want to put a little meat on the bones of exactly how you’re going to do this lawfully and constitutionally.”

DOJ attorneys said the government has yet to decide if Abrego Garcia will be removed to a third country or if proceedings to remove him back to El Salvador will be reopened, and that the decision will be made by a case officer once he comes under ICE’s custody.

When the government said an ICE case officer will decide how to move forward with Abrego Garcia’s deportation process once he’s in ICE custody, the judge expressed doubt about the agency’s process, saying Abrego Garcia’s removal process has been “altered, all depending on” the Trump administration’s interests.

“That is plainly insufficient to tell me what’s going to happen to Mr. Abrego apart from what you would have me believe, which is that we’ve given this no thought, no conversation, no pre-planning, we’re just going to roll the dice on Wednesday or whatever day he’s released, if he’s released to ICE custody. And I’m just telling you, I’m not buying that,” Judge Xinis said.

When a DOJ attorney said that’s not a fair characterization of the government’s position, saying the decision will be made by an ICE officer like all other cases, the judge accepted the answer but remarked that it makes their argument “weaker.”

Judge Xinis also repeatedly pressed the government on what she described as an “inconsistent” policy in its third-country removal process — comparing a DHS memo from March to an email advisory ICE sent out to its officers earlier this month, the latter of which described the possibility of a person being removed from the U.S. without an opportunity to contest it based on fear of torture or persecution.

A government attorney replied that “there is no meaningful difference between what’s set forth in the March 30, 2025, process and the July 9 process,” and that should the third-country removal process take place, Abrego Garcia will be given written notice and an opportunity to contest it.

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